San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1887-10-04

. say: ~ on nSGf tllls, gentlemen; You WI.
remember the evidence Of this holy MI
| lister of religion
The evidence Of the good old man, how
! ever, lost its whole weight when H.,
rOunsel for the prosecution asked him on,
Or two questions in different direction.
He said:
~ fear, Mr.. Burden, that the lamenta-
bic exiguity Of your income must shut you
out froru the enjoyment Of many of our
choicest blessings port wine, for in
| stanceT'
The rector shook his head sadly.
81 believe that remember the taste Of
port" he said, "but cannot he sure-it
Is SO long since saw any"
Brandy cannot altogether replace port,
can it, asked the barrister.
at cannot" said the rector.
yet dare say you get brandy, at least
sometimes
~ do" said the rector.
"As present, now from parishioner'"
Il have it given to me-" said the rec
tor, "by my churchwarden, Dan Guilt
ver."
81 will not ask you" said the counsel,
"whence you imagine this brandy to be
derived | prefer to think that you ask
no questions and have no suspicious. 1t
wouId he too much TO believe that divine
| of your age and position should counte-
nance the practice Of smuggling"
Then followed other witnesses and more
fencing.
Presently the counsel for the crown
made his speech. IL was very short
Here" he said, twas man, with his two
sons, and stranger, probably hired
| hand. The man was well known to be q
| smuggler-so well known that he was
| afraid Lyme Regis was, to n man, in alli-
ance with him to defeat the ends of JUS
| tice, and shielded him steadily in his runs
| to and from the coast of France. He was
caught, so to speak, red handed"
1t was impossible to resist the convic-
| ton that the rest Of the kegs which COM
| posed the cargo contained, like the one
| which had been opened, brandy. OF
course it was open to any one to maintain
| the improbable. HIS learned brother
might ask them to believe that these four
men had crossed the channel and landed
on an enemy's coast i'll quest Of potatoes,
cabbages, fruit, butter, or any other mar
ketable article. The undisputed facts
were, that here was q man with fast
sailing craft and fishing boat-what
was the object of the former? That his
most intimate friends admitted that they
received brandy as a present from him.
Where did he procure that brandy That
he was VIGOROUSLY smuggler by profess
sion. As regarded the evidence of the
man Skirling the actual fact could not
be disputed, although the act itself showed
low tone of morality, which ali would
regret to find existing in so respectable
body as the revenue service. No doubt
the gallant officer who had effected the
arrest with so much promptitude and
courage, although with a little indiscre-
ton, would take cogniZance of the offensc
in his military capacity. Finally he
asked the jury to give a verdict for tile
prosecution, and SO strike terror into the
hearts Of other evil doors and defiers Of
the law
When our counsel's turn came he made
q most eloquent and indignant speech.
According to him, Dan CULVER, the much
maligned, was an admirable specimen of
a class which formed, he said, the back
bone of our country; he was a yeOman,
farming the few acres which formed his
paternal estate, and living frugally with
his sons and an adopted daughter in cot
tage upon his own land. For fishing pur-
poses ne had two boats, one of them,
called the Dancing Polly, being re-
markedly fast sailer. On this particular
night he had been along the coast picking
up, no doubt, n cargo of butter and eggs,
or it might be fish, and such harmless
matters, and proposing to return to ROus-
don bay, n little creek or inlet of the sea
Immediately below his farm.
Here he protested against the assump-
ton that the expedition had been across
the channel. "How can you prove it?
How came the suspicion TO ariseY Was it
likely that in so small a vessel, at that
stormy period of the year, four men would
venture on a voyage so dangerous? What
is more common than Il trading voyage
along the coast? What more reasonable
to suppose than that a small farmer with
a taste for sailing and boating should
carry on such a trade? AC least, gentle
men, till the contrary is proved, you have
no right to suppose that the object of
keeping the Dancing Polly was crimi-
| nal one"
Daniel CULVER, he went on to say, was
accompanied by the two boys and
stranger. No secrecy was observed about
the expedition, and some idle or malig-
nant person, one of those creeping things
which infest every society of men, thought
it worth while to communicate the pro-
L
liant officer whose discretion was not
equal to his zeal, and whose eagerness to
protect his majesty's revenue led him to
overlook the fact that you must not arrest
man on suspicion and charge him with
smuggling, unless you can prove it. "For,
gentlemen" he said, "what actual proof
have we? This"-he held up the half
empty pint bottle of brandy-"this is the
mighty proof! A small half pint of spirit
which smells to me, gentlemen"-he took
out the cork and smelled it cautiously
(Which smells to me, l confess, of rum,
rather than of brandy-is all the proof,
absolutely the only proof, that we have.
In the dead of dark night, a man, whose
object is theft, hurriedly steals this spirit
from the hold Of the vessel, and swears
that he saw other kegs, the contents
of which are unknown. The place
is most retired and secluded. They carry
off their prisoners, the officer never once
thinking of examining the boat. When
they send back for that purpose there is
Uothing at all in the boat. Mind, gentle
men, no one had been there. Yet the
boat was in ballast. That is a very re-
markable circumstance. That is very
suspicious circumstance. That is a cir.
cumstance which in my mind renders en-
tirely valueless the evidence of the man
the chief witness-whose only value was
that it seemed to afford basis for as
sumption of guilt. Remember, gentle
men, again, that the only proof of guilt is
half pint of rum, or some such spirit, in
a bottle-a half pint-about enough to
amuse a gentleman between a bottle of
port and bedtime; and on that half pint
you are asked to convict this honest, re-